


Fortified by Trauma

by AndiKaneUnderwood



Series: Inhuman Academy [3]
Category: NCIS: Los Angeles
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Author's Favorite, Kidnapping, M/M, Sorry Not Sorry, The Author Regrets Nothing, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 11:44:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20173702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndiKaneUnderwood/pseuds/AndiKaneUnderwood
Summary: Lumos was about to become inactive because Eric Beale was about to die.G Callen was not a man easily startled, frightened, or cowed. He was very afraid right now.





	Fortified by Trauma

Fortified by Trauma

By: AndiKaneUnderwood

**AU: Inhuman Academy, Alpha/Beta/Omega**

_G. Callen [Code Name: Optic]: precognition (Neuro), Alpha_

_Sam Hanna [Code Name: Reflex]: hyperkinesis (Transport), Beta_

_Kensi Blye [Code Name: Parley]: omnilinguism (Mentality), Alpha_

_Dominic Vail [Code Name: Transformer]: energy conversion (Energy), Beta_

_Eric Beale [Code Name: Lumos]: light manipulation (Molecular), Omega_

_Hetty Lange [Code Name: Eternal]: superhuman longevity (Physical), Beta_

_Nate Getz [Code Name: Soul]: empathy (Neuro), Beta_

_Nell Jones [Code Name: Shade]: darkness/shadow manipulation (Molecular), Beta_

_Marty Deeks [Code Name: Houdini]: illusion (Mentality), Omega_

_"I had been fortified by trauma, the way a bone, once broken, grows back stronger than it had been."_

_~Charles Blow_

Eric Beale was very smart, smarter than most people gave him credit for. He could hustle a poker game (there was a reason he wasn't allowed back in that casino), hack into secure facilities in his sleep (which he'd actually done once), and speak three different languages fluently (German, English, and Sign Language), and speak bits and pieces of a couple others (French and Spanish), but he was most proud of his powers. He could manipulate light, it was the coolest thing he'd ever done with his life. With his abilities of light, he also had a bit of heat manipulation, mostly stemming from the control of his light. Dimming lights was easy for him, increasing the intensity of his light so that it burned when someone touched him was a bit harder.

Eric had first discovered his powers at age nine when he woke up one fine summer morning to his entire body glowing. His mother had panicked and wondered what the Hell was happening. His father had informed his mother that Eric's powers where growing in and they'd need to begin training him to control them.

Problem was, neither his father (who could generate acid) nor his mother (who could absorb kinetic energy) could train him when his skin glowed and his touch burned hotter than the sun. Eric met Hetty Lange at age 11, she was an amazing person. She scared Eric intellectually and was able to give him tips on how to reign in his powers.

Hetty then introduced herself to his parents and offered to take Eric to a school where they could help him learn how to utilize his powers for the greater good. They spoke to Eric about it and once he'd agreed, they sent him off. It was there he met G Callen, who had no known past beyond the Academy, and Sam Hanna, whose parents were in the military. They introduced him to Kensi Blye and Dominic Vail, who introduced him to Nate Getz. In a short three day, Eric had more friends than he'd ever had before his powers developed. He got along well with most of his classmates, excelled in his classes, and even made friends with a brunette Beta girl and a blonde Omega boy.

Penelope "Nell" Jones was a good friend and the perfect complement to his powers with her ability to manipulate shadows and darkness. Martin "Marty" Deeks had come from a broken home but didn't let anyone give him sympathy, pity, or shit for it, so it was no surprise that he was an Illusionist. Eric was happy to know all of his friends. Even happier when he presented as Omega and began a relationship with his Alpha SoulMate G Callen.

Around the middle of year three at the American Academy for Inhuman Persons, they began training you as a hero. They didn't let you go out into the real world yet, you started stopping smaller crimes and _surveillance_ on larger operations before the end of year four, but you got to chose your name and a field partner so when you did begin stopping larger crimes at the beginning of year seven, you had a friend to do it with. Eric would've partnered with any of his friends, but Marty was snapped up by Kensi, and G and Sam had agreed long ago to be partners. Nate and Dominic had also agreed to go into fieldwork together, but Eric was happy to partner with Nell.

He'd chosen Lumos as his hero name, Nell had chosen Shade.

Eric had been Lumos for exactly 22 months, six days, and seventeen minutes when he was kidnapped by one of the biggest supervillains anyone would ever meet. Her name was Alexa Comescu, but her giant black butterfly wings that faded into blue at the ends had given her the name Swallowtail. All of the Year Six and below kids had been told to stay away from her.

They were never supposed to be out in the field, not on this case anyway. It was supposed to be a surveillance mission, some quick recon then back to the car. But, Eric ended up going it alone when Nell ended up sick in the middle of the day thanks to some asshole of an Inhuman dusting her with the flu virus. It would've taken too long to brief another person and Eric had always been able to handle what came his way.

What the Academy's Headmaster didn't know was that this surveillance mission wasn't all it seemed to be. The shop Eric was supposed to be looking around, it was a front for something far more sinister. And the owners weren't to keen on seeing a teenage Inhuman snooping around.

So, Eric had run when the bullets started flying and hid behind some old crates, sending a Light Clone**(1)** out to lead them away. He breathed heavily, trying not to have a Panic attack, and waited as the bullets began getting further away. When he was sure he wasn't going to be caught or draw any unwanted attention, he pulled up his hand and tapped the wrist band he'd requested when he put together his uniform. The hologram popped up and Eric's hands trembled as he hit the call button.

Static was his only answer.

Eric tried again with the same results.

When the static came up a third time, Eric thumped his head against the box he was leaning against and whimpered. He wasn't sure he could go through with this. He wanted to go home and curl up in bed, preferably with G, and sleep this all off like it was a bad dream instead of another nightmare to add to his increasingly growing list.

Then Eric thought of something. He was a Bonded Omega. Why the Hell hadn't it occurred to him that he had a Bond?

Eric closed his eyes and reached out, tugging at the Bond in his head with increasing desperation. He nearly cried in relief when his hopes were answered and G sent a spiral of questions back. _Eric, what wrong?_

_The warehouse I'm investigating isn't nearly as abandoned as Headmaster thought it would be. There are guys here and they're scary as Hell and I'm being shot at and I can't reach anyone over comms and I can't take this anymore. I want to come home._ Eric replied.

G was very understanding and Eric was so thankful he'd somehow managed to find himself in the Alpha's favor. He had no idea what his life would've been like if he were on G's bad side, but he had a general idea and he didn't want to know how bad it could've been.

G was running, his thoughts went so much faster when he was running. _Eric, are you safe?_

_I'm hidden behind some boxes and a Light Clone is leading them far away from me, but that's about as safe as it'll ever get._

G was silent for a moment, but Eric still got waves of comfort from the warmth of the Bond in his head. _Eric, I've talked to the Headmaster, he's going to send some backup. I'll be with them when they get there. Hang on a little longer, okay? I'm coming._

Eric purred softly. G was on his way. He'd be safe with G. _How on Earth did you convince Headmaster to let you come with the backup?_

_Promised him I'd wait on the sidelines, that I just wanted to be there for you._ Eric heard the faint sound of a car engine and he sighed.

_You'll be here soon?_

_I'm just ten minutes away,_ lumina mea.

Eric would've said more, but a thump and a metallic clang right after startled him and he went rushing away before whatever else was in there could find him. He was almost to the door when he felt something sharp his the side of his neck and he fell to the ground unconscious before he could so much as process the fact that he'd been hit.

Eric couldn't quite recall what had happened but when he woke up he was on the floor with a pounding headache and a spinning room. Not like the _'I'm on a Ferris Wheel'_ spinning but like the _'I've been drugged'_ spinning. Slowly, Eric sat up and waited while the hammers doing construction on his brain stopped pounding and the room returned to its normal resting state. When he opened his eyes, he sat by the wall in an unfamiliar room.

The walls where grey and the air was damp, but Eric wasn't quite afraid. Not yet. With a whispered curse, Eric let a ball of light come to life in the palm of his hand and he pushed himself to his feet so he could look around. He paced his small prison four times before he realized something was very wrong.

The air was damp and the walls were wet, but there was no water. The walls were cold and looked like stone, but they echoed hollowly when he tapped on them. There was an odd echoing noise that haunted the spaces he didn't occupy, but there wasn't a reason for one.

Eric made his entire body light up with the same glow in his palm and he gasped when he saw where he was. "No..." he murmured. "No, no, this can't be happening."

Because when he looked up, he was standing in the middle of what _looked_ like a device used to test a rocket's cargo in space. There was a camera higher up, Eric could see the blinking light. He whimpered.

_Lumos_ was about to become inactive because _Eric Beale_ was about to die.

_NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles_

G Callen was not a man easily startled, frightened, or cowed.

He was very afraid right now.

He'd met Eric Beale at twelve years old when he'd come to the common room in the middle of his second year and found a young boy who'd come in late from homeschooling. G had heard that the Year Two's where getting a new student, he didn't think it'd be so soon. As it was, he sauntered over to the couch the younger boy sat on and sat down. "Hi!"

The boy startled and G found himself looking into a pair of the prettiest blue-green eyes he'd ever seen. "Hi."

"I'm G Callen." G held out his hand as he'd been taught by Miss Hetty long ago.

"Eric Beale." the boy shook G's hand. "You've got a cool name."

"Really? Most people just ask why I've only got a letter."

"Is that what you want me to ask?" Eric blinked at him, eyes wide and innocent in a way G hadn't seen since he had his first vision in the middle of the night and woken up the rest of the kids in the orphanage when he screamed.

G shrugged, "You could, but there's not all that much to say. I don't know why I don't have a first name."

Eric nodded, "Then I won't ask." He smiled, showing off bright green braces and white teeth.

And thus, the beginning of that friendship was born. Eric had adopted his father's policy of 'if they offer you listen, otherwise you don't need to know' and G had learned the 'don't ask, don't tell' idea from Kensi and Sam who both had family in the military, so when Eric offered the information about how he was kicked out of a casino for helping his father win a poker game, Callen listen patiently and offered both his apology and his laughter. In-kind, G told the story of how he had fallen in an icy lake one winter at his seventh foster home, gotten pneumonia, and was laid up the rest of Christmas break. They worked carefully together to establish trust, which was only pulled stronger when G presented as Alpha at the end of their second year and came back from a visit to Hetty one weekend to find that Eric had presented as Omega.

G had asked Eric to become his significant other shortly before the transfers had come in from Canada and Eric was ecstatic to say yes. They'd Bonded that weekend and been in each other's heads ever since. G had never felt so at ease with someone, never been okay with having others in his head, but he was perfectly comfortable letting Eric share a Bond with him.

They'd had that Bond for this long. He wasn't going to give that up for a supervillain with a vendetta. He would fight tooth and nail for his right to be in that car to help Eric escape that mission-turned-hostage situation. G had _earned_ his place in Eric's life, he wasn't going to sit idly by while Eric was in danger when he could help.

G slid into the car with a forced calm around him and Hetty perched on the seat next to him and Gibbs across from him. Marty, Kensi, and Nell had also weaseled their ways onto this rescue mission.

"Now, remember kids, this is not a sanctioned mission. You are expected to stay back unless asked otherwise by myself or Mr. Gibbs." Hetty reminded them, meeting the eyes of each of the four kids.

They all nodded and Hetty turned to Gibbs. He sighed. "This woman is dangerous. I expect you'll be smart about it."

Again, they all nodded and the car rolled to a silent stop as they arrived at the warehouse. G had a feeling in his stomach, an awful churning that burned him from the inside out. He was hit suddenly with a vision that threw him for many loops. Flashes of a woman he didn't know, of Eric laying unconscious in a cylinder-like room, a vial, and a name and number. When he came back to reality, panting and sweating like he'd run a marathon, he knew this was life-and-death. He hadn't had a vision this bad or unexpected since he'd accurately predicted the deaths of two of the Academy's kids by a madman looking for vengeance. He looked up, eyes wild and scared.

"Mr. Callen, what did you see?" Hetty asked softly.

G Callen was not a man easily startled, frightened, or cowed. However, it came as no surprise to anyone who knew him that there was one guaranteed way to terrify him.

Callen gulped and met Hetty's eyes, "I... I saw Eric. Swallowtail was with him." Hetty was silent as she waited for him to continue. Callen wanted to cry. "She's going to kill him."

_NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles_

Eric was a mess of terror and panic when he feels the soft waves of comfort came floating to him from a Bond he'd momentarily forgotten he possessed for the second time that night. Or day. It had been too close to midnight when he'd slipped into the warehouse, so it was probably early morning.

There's a tightness in his chest that spoke of lingering anxiety and he _hated_ that feeling too much to submit to it, so he did he best to calm down. This chamber was terrifying enough without the threat of a panic attack looming over his head, similar to how his grandmother loomed over his father. He didn't want this panic attack, therefore he wasn't having one. Simple. Unfortunately, it seemed that his Anxiety hadn't gotten the memo.

As he sat there with his back against the wall and his head between his knees, he whimpered softly and prayed this wouldn't be the end. He still had so much he wanted to _do_, so much he wanted to _see_, he still had to beat Dom at Mario Kart. He couldn't die here. Could he?

A bubble of laughter echoed around the smooth tunnel and Eric nearly jumped out of his skin. A woman with dark hair and giant butterfly wings came from the shadows and Eric blinked when she didn't come into focus immediately. He blinked twice more before he realized his suit's glasses**(2)** weren't on his nose. That somehow made things even more terrifying. "Y-You're Swallowtail."

The woman hummed and the lower half of her face flickered with movement. "That's right, child. Who are you?"

"Er-" he barely caught himself, "I'm Lumos." Eric gestured up to the ball of light he'd released into the air shortly before he started panicking so bad.

Swallowtail inclined her head. "Why where you sneaking about my warehouse so late at night, Lumos?"

Eric shook his head. "Won't tell you."

Swallowtail growled softly, "Why ever not?"

Eric shook his head harder, "Not allowed."

Swallowtail hissed and pulled something shiny out of nowhere. "Perhaps _this_ will loosen your tongue." She shot forward with speed she shouldn't have had and Eric was pinned to the wall with her hand on his head. Swallowtail jabbed something into his neck and pain lanced through his body as she injected whatever it was into his veins.

He whimpered as his body began rejecting the contents of the vial. "What, what did you do?"

Swallowtail leaned in close so Eric could see every inch of her feral smile. "I'll come back when you're feeling more charitable." With a cackle and a flourish, Swallowtail was gone.

The pain ramped up suddenly and Eric screamed. The ball of light above him flickered out and he was left in darkness.

His voice echoed off the high, smooth walls and bounced back to him. He whimpered and whined and prayed for an end.

_G, please hurry!_

_NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles_

G's head snapped up, "Eric!" he cried.

Had Gibbs not grabbed his shoulder, G would've been out of the car and down the street before anyone could've stopped him. "Hold it, Callen. Hold it!"

G struggled against the older man's hands. "No, he's in trouble! Let me _go_!" His eyes flashed a faint black, then red, and Gibbs pulled back with a growl, taking G with him. _Away_ from the building.

"Get off me!" G gasped, fingers scrabbling against Gibbs's hands as he tried to throw his captor off. "Get off, I have to get to Eric!"

With increasing desperation, G clawed and bit and scratched at the hands that held him against the solid chest behind him. G burned himself out after another five minutes and panted harshly. "Please," he begged. "Please, he needs me."

Gibbs shook his head. "I'm sorry, Callen. I can't let you go in there."

G could feel tears burning behind his eyes, an echo of pain pulsing in his bones. He looked up at Gibbs, "They're hurting him, Gibbs. He's being tortured."

Gibbs nodded. "It's alright, son. We'll find him, don't worry."

G breathed deep and tried again to reach for his Omega through his Precognition. His power had never worked the best where Eric was concerned, but it usually gave him something to let him know Eric was okay.

A flash of his smile, a flickering smirk, an impression of whatever emotion Eric was feeling, anything to let G know Eric was _safe_ at least. This time, however, there was nothing and that was probably scarier than the vision G had received earlier.

Then his eyes widened. He closed his eyes tight and focused on the name and numbers that had flashed suddenly through his head only a few hours earlier. With a start, his eyes snapped open, glowing brightly, and he gasped

A vial flashed in the little light left in the tunnel; Eric writhing on the floor, body curled inwards, hands gripping his head with his eyes screwed shut and his mouth open in a scream; Swallowtail's face, an evil glint in her eyes as she stalked closer to her prey. The picture zoomed in on a set of numbers and a name again before it lurched out and focused on a shipyard, on a boat that was colored completely white.

G gasped as he came back to himself. "I found him."

He called to his friends through the Pack Bond. He was unsurprised to find that Sam, Nate, and Dom had found their way to the scene as well. Gibbs had left him to his visions short moments before and G looked at each of his PackMates, making full use of the moments before Hetty would come to check on him. "One of ours is in trouble."

Soft growls and hisses floated around the Pack and G found himself silently echoing the sentiments. Sam stepped forward, "What do you want us to do?"

It was unorthodox to have a Beta in place of an Alpha as the Pack Second, but Sam had never failed him and the rest of the Pack was just as unorthodox. They all respected the pair too much to question them.

G's eyes narrowed as he formulated a plan. "I know where to start looking. Hetty and Gibbs won't find him in time, so it's up to us. Ready?"

The Pack nodded.

A smirk flickered to life on G's lips. "Good. Here's the plan."

_NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles_

Eric was cold, shivers wracking every bit of his frame. The last traces of pain fled his body as the third round of whatever Swallowtail drugged him with left his bloodstream, leaving him sore and out of breath as he whimpered softly.

He wanted G. He wanted his PackMates. God, he wanted to go home. He had no idea how long he'd been in this God-forsaken shell, but he sincerely hoped it wasn't as long as he thought it was. He had considered bouncing up another ball of light, but he was so tired, he wasn't sure he could even reach for his powers, much less try to use them.

He was so _cold_.

The sound of a door opening made him flinch. The whisper of wings skimming the ground hit his ears and he whimpered softly. "_Please_. _Please_, let me go," he pleaded.

Laughter echoed around the cavern. "Why ever would I do that? When I'm finally finished with you, I'll have one of the Academy's finest as my servant. At my beck and call for everything and anything I wish."

Eric flinched. He and G had played around with that a little when things got too overwhelming for one or both of them. It wasn't anything big or sexual, just an outlet; a way to focus on something other than the stress and pressure on their shoulders. He was fairly certain a few of the others in their group touched on it occasionally. He wondered vaguely if Swallowtail understood what she'd just hit with her proverbial hammer.

He did not doubt it.

Swallowtail smiled and held up another vial, Eric whimpered, tried to get away; but his back was already against the wall and there wasn't anywhere left for him to go. Swallowtail leaned in close as she injected the contents of the vial into his neck, her breath hissed sharply over his ear. "I'm going to have so much fun breaking you."

Eric's screams swallowed the open air in its intensity and volume. Swallowtail left again, her smirk the last thing Eric saw before the darkness came rushing back with the slamming of a metal door.

He didn't know how long it lasted, didn't want to know. Whatever God was up there seemed to have pity and Eric mercifully passed out.

_NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles_

G had already had enough with the owner of the boat when the fourth wave of intense pain flooded his system and cut off suddenly. He slammed his hands down on the table the boat owner sat at. "Listen, asshole. My friend is out there alone, being tortured, and with one of the most notorious villains, you'll never have the misfortune of meeting. You tell me what I want to know now, or I'll come back with," he paused, a vision flashing before his eyes. He smirked, "I'll come back with your daughter and tell her about the kids you've been _helping_."

The man's eyes went wide. "You can't!"

G raised a single eyebrow. "You wanna risk it?"

The man shook his head frantically. "Alright, alright. There was a woman with the butterfly wings, big black ones with blue at the ends. She asked me to use my farmhouse for a few days in the future and paid me a few hundred thousand dollars to keep quiet about it. I just got myself out of debt, I wasn't going to get myself into more to repair my house."

G smiled, big and fake, and nodded. "Good. Thank you." With that, he turned and left, making sure to shoot off a text to Sam Braddock to erase this man's mind of this encounter. Within moments, the message had been read and the man behind him let out a strangled gasp and a thump as his head hit the table. G smiled and felt Sam's mind brush his, _Good?_

He spared a brief moment to fleeting anger for Sam's father instilling it in the blonde's head that he would never be good enough. He smiled and warmth went spiraling through the tie. _Good job, Sam._

Sam's pleasant feelings where the only impression left in G's mind as he retreated from G's head, the tie (Sam had described it black with a few streaks of grey) flickered briefly then G's mind registered Sam had left. He sent the information he'd received to Timothy for an address and got one back promptly. G smiled.

Despite their differences and tendency to stay within their smaller groups, the entire year was essentially one big Pack, headed by the leaders of the smaller groups; Tony DiNozzo, G, Ed Lane, Jack Dalton, Steve McGarrett, Aaron Hotchner, and Don Eppes. Every single one of the group wouldn't hesitate to lay down their life for the others, no hesitation, no questions asked. Every Pack was protective over the Omegas, but this Pack was the most protective. Inhuman Omegas caught a lot of shit, but none more so than the ones in G's year. None of them were quite sure why, but it ramped up the normal Alpha instinct when others bullied the few Omegas in the group.

G shook that thought from his head, then called for his Pack again and growled softly. This pedophilic man may not have given him much to go on, but G was smart enough to put together the full picture.

He sent a mental message to his Pack and they responded immediately. It was time to get Eric back.

Swallowtail wouldn't know what hit her.

_NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles_

It was several hours later when Eric was finally completely aware of what was going on around him. He'd lost track of a lot of time while he was unconscious and he wondered how much time he'd ended up loosing. He was so scared. He reached out along the Bond and brushed against G's mind. _G?_

The response was immediate and dizzying. _I'm here._ Emotions came floating across the Bond with speed and raw passion and Eric was both comforted and worried by it.

_I'm scared._ Eric whimpered as he shifted and pulled on sore muscles.

_I'm coming, Eric. I'm almost there. She's going to be stopped, Eric._ G reassured him. Waves of comfort washed over him and Eric whined softly.

With a shuffle and a push off the wall, Eric was sitting in a kind of crouch. He pushed himself up and stood on jello-like legs. He nodded to himself. _I know._

Eric sighed. What he wanted right now, more than anything in this world; was a bath, a bed, and G to curl up beside. But, as it was, the door creaked open and Eric prepared himself to deal with whatever was on the other side.

_NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles_

G came to a screeching halt at the driveway to the farm the man had told him about. He was almost afraid of what he'd find in the barn, but he threw the car into park and stepped out of the car alongside his Pack. "Soul, Transformer," he pointed left. Nate and Dominic followed his direction and were gone in moments.

"Parley, Houdini." G gestured right and the Bonded pair needed no more direction, they set off, leapfrogging over each other with no difficulties.

"Shade, Reflex." G started forward, Sam and Nell at his back.

None of his team needed more direction than bit and pieces of small indicators. They knew each other and their leader well. Nothing would stop them from getting their Packmate back. They went through the house methodically, room by room and not missing a single detail. G's eyes were narrowed as he held up a wrist**(3)**, "Shade, cut the lights."

Nell's eyes flashed, then glowed a faint black as she used her power to locate them all. She then shifted her hand so that her first two fingers pointed outwards while the rest curled inwards towards her palm. She waved her hand around the room a second time and every light in the farm flickered out. G nodded to Sam, who slid into a doorway with Nell behind him. G just barely managed to hold back the growl that threatened to tear past his lips and hide in time.

The soft noises of wings dragging against the round reached G's ears and he had to grip the doorway as two people came walking past arguing.

"Mistress, we can't give the prisoner any more of the pathogen, it will kill him!" cried a shaky male voice.

"He is to die by my hand anyhow, Null. It might as well be now." replied a steady female voice.

G narrowed his eyes as the voice continued, "Breaking him had proved harder than I thought. I have no use for an unbroken servant."

Blue-green met brown as the first set of footsteps continued and the second stopped. G peaked over and watched as the person sighed and began heading back the way he'd come. G's eyes snapped back to Sam's and he nodded to the man. Sam and Nell nodded back, silently slipping through the shadows to follow the man. Hopefully, he led them to Eric. G waited until they'd gone, then turn to follow Swallowtail.

_NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles_

Eric was a jumpy man by nature, it came with being subject to bullying for many years. Eric couldn't see what was happening too well, his glasses missing as they were, but that didn't mean he was unable to fight. If anything, he'd fight even harder with his glasses gone but the enemy didn't need to know that. Right now, all they needed to know was that Eric was still alive.

They didn't even need to know that, but Eric wasn't backing down from this fight. If they wanted to drug him or poison him or whatever it was they'd given him that had made him hurt so badly, they'd have to put up a fight first just as Swallowtail's minion had when he'd come creeping into the room expecting him to be unconscious. The door creaked again and Eric lit up his palms, calling back up the light he'd be gifted with and readied himself for the fight of his life.

A scrawny man came rustling through the door with a swirling mist resting in his palms and Eric growled softly. "Don't come any closer!"

"Er-" the voice cut off with a grunt as the head snapped around, looking to something Eric couldn't see, then the figure looked back. "Lumos, is that you?"

Eric tilted his head, regarding the voice, unsure if it was who he thought it was or a trick Swallowtail was using. "'Dini?"

A flicker of movement and the person moved closer. "We thought it was you!"

Eric shrunk back just a moment and held out one hand. The person stopped, "Lumos?"

"What's the buzzword**(4)**?" Eric demanded, his palm heating up until they were pure white.

"Buzzword?" A tilted head and a frown, then, "Oh! _Das Zentrum_**(5)**.

Eric relaxed and allowed him to step closer. "'Dini, what are you doing here?"

Marty Deeks stepped closer and hummed, "Can you throw up a ball of light?"

Eric obliged, throwing up two balls of bright light with a shiver. "What are you doing here?" he repeated.

Marty gently tilted Eric's head to the side and looked over the spot Swallowtail had injected him a grand total of four times with whatever had been in that God awful vial. "Optic got a vision. Eternal and Shield wouldn't be able to get here in time, so obviously, we had to intervein."

Eric whimpered softly as Marty cleaned his wounds and injected his arm with a dose of antibiotics and an antidote for any kind of poison. "Optic?"

Marty hummed again, "He's here."

Eric slumped down in relief. If G was here, then he would be safe. With a sigh, Eric relaxed and nodded to Marty.

Marty nodded back, "Let's get you to a Doctor, Lumos. Up you get."

Eric groaned and hissed when his limbs protested movement, but Marty wrapped an arm around his waist and took on most of his weight. "I've gotcha, 'Mos."

Perhaps the bath, bed, and cuddling he'd wanted early wasn't such a faraway thing anymore.

He reached out along the Bond and received waves of comfort and reassurance in return. He sighed, home sounded pretty damn good right now.

_NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles~NCIS Los Angeles_

G was furious with Swallowtail for thinking she could take what was his. Even more so with what she'd said about "breaking" him. That shit didn't fly.

Eric was a very independent person (though you'd probably get confused when you caught him on a bad day) and he had endured years of bullying and ridicule over something as simple as learning how to control his powers. He'd also done crazy things like surfed in Vietnam with his father one summer and hustled a poker game when he was little. Eric was proud of himself as a person and it took a lot to 'break' him.

(G would never try to break Eric, but it should be said that Eric had once mentioned that G was the only one who'd be able to hurt him so much he completely shut down. Effectively breaking him beyond repair.)

Perhaps it said much to how G felt about his Mate that he was currently stalking Swallowtail, but he wanted her to hurt. He wanted her to hurt like she'd hurt Eric and nothing else would do.

As he snuck up behind her, G prepared one of his tranquilizer darks and waited for the moment to present itself. It did moments later. "You know, I never did like an Alpha who stayed away from his Mate in times of need. Always made me wonder if they truly loved the other."

G growled softly, shooting the dark and watching as it hit between the wings. Swallowtail turned and huffed, "An illusion is an illusion no matter what form it takes, young hero. Remember that." The image flickered and went away. G whipped around but no one else was there and he growled in frustration. He calmed himself down by taking in deep breaths and counting backward from ten in three different languages. Once he was calm, G rushed from the house and called to his Pack.

He informed them that Swallowtail had fled and he was coming to them.

The Pack expressed anger at being unable to bring Swallowtail to justice for what she did to Eric, but then Marty replied that he'd found Eric.

For three heartbeats, G was frozen. Then he snapped into action, moving as fast as his legs could carry him towards the clearing and the ambulance as the scenery around him blurred. He offered his thanks to Marty in his head and smiled. "Lumos!" he shouted.

A dirty blonde head snapped up, the owner's body standing from its spot on the bumper of the ambulance. Crystalline blue eyes darted through the crowd and focussed intently on blue-green. "Optic."

G skidded to a halt and pulled Eric into a hug. "You're safe now."

Eric slumped further against G and purred softly, "You're here." His voice was breathless, _exhausted_. God, what had Swallowtail done to him?

G was suddenly struck with the truth behind Swallowtail's statement. An Alpha needed to be there for the Omega, not chasing after the Omega's attacker like an angel of justice or revenge. G resolved to never let that happen again.

He tightened his hold on Eric when the smaller man burrowed into his chest with a sigh. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there when we first found you."

Eric shook his head. "You're here _now_." He said it like it was the only thing that mattered. Like it was all that he cared about. G could see that being the case here. "I wanna go home."

G nodded, "We'll make sure nothing lasting happened and then go home, I promise."

Eric whined a protest but ultimately accepted. Where the tables turned, he knew he'd be doing the same thing.

They got him checked out and made sure nothing was wrong with him and Eric never let go of G's hand. Once the examination was over and no lasting effects had been found, G pulled Eric to his feet and wrapped an arm around his waist, letting the smaller man lean against him for support.

Eric winced with every few steps, the pain his body had been through making itself known now that adrenaline was no longer running through his system. G wished he could take away the pain, it hurt him to see his Omega hurting, but he couldn't do that. Not this time.

When they finally made it back to Eric's room, G hesitated to let Eric go. He was pleased that Eric seemed to pick up on this or felt the same way, because he took a single look at his room, with its knickknacks on the dresser and clothes piled up near the closet, and looked back at G. "Can I stay with you?"

G smiled, "Of course you can," and led him to the asked room.

They got into pajamas and slid under the covers. G pulled Eric closer as Eric curled up on his side. "Feeling better?"

Eric hummed. "How long was I gone?"

"Only a few hours. The whole team was given the day off. You and I are excused for tomorrow as well."

"What did I miss in our classes?"

"I show you when you wake up, _buburuză_**(6)**. Sleep now." G pressed a kiss to Eric's forehead and laid back, resting his hand on Eric's arm.

Eric sighed, a warm puff of breath on G's chest, and yawned. "Thank you for saving me."

G chuckled. "I'll always come to save you, Eric."

"I think when I stop having nightmares about this every night, I'll be fortified by trauma." Eric blinked sleepily, then closed his eyes and sighed again. "Love you."

G smiled, looking up at the ceiling with a chuckled. "Love you too, _buburuză_."

He joined Eric in sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> (1) It's how it reads, a clone made of light made to trick your eyes into seeing what's not there.
> 
> (2) Wrap around glasses that act similar to the inside of the Iron Man helmet. Look up 'high tech glasses' on Pinterest for a better idea.
> 
> (3) Think of the Widow's Bites for Black Widow.
> 
> (4) A specific word for each of them NCIS Los Angeles team to say to another should one suspect one of them of not being who they say they are.
> 
> (5) German for center, heart, or hub.
> 
> (6) Romanian for ladybug. Yes, G calls Eric ladybug. Fight me.


End file.
